The story of the album teases that it's "based on true events." The press release elaborates the title of the song is a refrence to Hardin Valley, west of Knoxville, Tennessee, where vocalist Phil Bozeman grew up. Bozeman explains:

“It’s all about me as a child, and some of it is me looking back on that time from the perspective of now. Also, it’s my interpretation of my mom’s struggles and her different personalities. She had a journal that contained very disturbing and sometimes evil writings, and some of her quotes and a lot of that journal is in the lyrics.”